A high-tech tool now which has been in more than 90% of the US mammograms does not improve breast-cancer detection or might also lead to missed diagnoses, reveals a study.

According to lead researcher Constance Lehman, director of breast imaging, the technology, approved in the US in 1998, is used in wider section all of mammograms performed each year at a cost of more than $400 million.

Lehman, also the co-director of the Avon Foundation Comprehensive Breast Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said there is no question about the fact that computer-aided detection (CAD) offers no benefit to detecting cancers.

“We should certainly stop charging for it. We want to use our health-care dollars on technology that will improve the health of our patients”, he said.

Hologic and Icad, makers of medical imaging equipment, fell in New York trading after study findings were released. Hologic, based in Bedford, Mass., gets about 37% of its sales from breast health products. Icad, based in Nashua, N.H., depends entirely on revenue generated from its medical imaging systems.

According to the American Cancer Society, mammograms’ should be performed each year starting at 40. The current study shows that regardless of how often mammograms are performed, computer-aided detection doesn’t improve their accuracy.

Researchers for the study examined mammograms from 323,973 women; all these women underwent digital screening with or without the computerized assistance. Cancer was detected in the equal proportion of women regardless of which method was used, with similar accuracy in finding actual tumors and ruling out false positives said researchers.

The findings supports two previous studies that showed similar results but were criticized because they included only older women and was done using older technology that was read by less experienced radiologists.

Digital mammography is a specialized form of mammography that uses digital receptors and computers instead of x-ray film to help examine breast tissue for breast cancer. The electrical signals can be read on computer screens, permitting more manipulation of images to theoretically allow radiologists to more clearly view the results. Digital mammography may be "spot view", for breast biopsy, or "full field" (FFDM) for screening.

Digital mammmography is also utilized in stereotactic biopsy. Breast biopsy may also be performed using a different modality, such as ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).